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Advance Organizers in Advisory Reports

Selective Reading, Recall, and Perception

VU University Amsterdam, l.lagerwerf{at}fsw.vu.nl

Louise Cornelis

lhcornelis{at}zonnet.nl

Johannes de Geus

Schouten & Nelissen, Zaltbommel, Netherlands

Phidias Jansen

Atos Consulting, Utrecht, Netherlands

According to research in educational psychology, advance organizers lead to better learning and recall of information. In this research, the authors explored advance organizers from a business perspective, where larger documents are read under time pressure. Graphic and verbal advance organizers were manipulated into six versions of an advisory report, read by 159 experienced professional readers in a between-subjects design. Their reading time was limited to encourage selective reading. The results show that graphic advance organizers facilitate selective reading, but they do not enhance recall. Verbal advance organizers introducing a problem enhance recall, and graphic advance organizers moderate the effects on both selective reading and recall.

Key Words: advance organizer • text signaling • selective reading • problem-solution • discourse structure • business communication • document design

Written Communication, Vol. 25, No. 1, 53-75 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0741088307309043


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